More than 900 children were hospitalised as a result of alcohol or drug poisoning last year.
Details released to the Irish Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act, show over three quarters – or 724 – were girls.
A total of 3,662 people had inpatient admissions in 2022 due to drink or substance abuse.
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They had taken a range of substances, such as paracetamol, cocaine, cannabis and heroin.
The figures do not include those who were only treated in A&E.
But the European Journal of Emergency Medicine, show 3,381 people were treated in emergency wards between 2014 and 2019, due to "recreational drug toxicity".
It’s the third highest rate among the 24 countries who participated in the study, behind only Norway and the UK.
Dr Bobby Smyth, a clinical professor in public health and primary care in Trinity College Dublin, said: "It changes maybe year-on-year or decade-on-decade, depending on the profile of drugs that are being used.
"In the 90s and early 00s, certainly in Dublin, it was all heroin-related.
"Heroin has really fallen out of favour among younger people. That’s good news.
"But there is certainly a wider range of other substances now contributing to A&E presentations, including drugs like cocaine – the use of which has really increased since we exited the years of austerity.
"Cocaine presentations dropped during the austerity years, but really since about 2012, cocaine presentations –to addiction services, mental health services and hospitals – have all been increasing.
"There are certain issues linked to cannabis. There is a thing called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which is a little bit like pregnancy-related morning sickness, except it’s caused just by cannabis.
"That’s causing a lot of people to present to emergency departments with vomiting – and the only solution for those people is to stop their cannabis use."
The Government recently set up a citizens’ assembly on drug use. It met for the first time last month and will consider whether to decriminalise some substances. Beaumont Hospital consultant Bill Tormey is in favour of that.
He said: "Use of a small volume of drugs should not be a criminal offence – it should be a criminal offence to be a major supplier. Cannabis and opiates should be decriminalised. I don’t think cocaine should be decriminalised as its destructive power is phenomenal.
"Things like cannabis and various variations of cannabis should be sold in shops and quality controlled."
But Dr Smyth added: "Unfortunately, if you liberalise access to drugs, you’re just going to get more drug use, so you’re going to get more hospital presentations."
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